Health Research on Mate Tea

Teavana has started carrying a lot of mate teas. I was under the impression that these teas have potentially carcinogenic effects? The google research I did is mixed. Has anyone done further or in depth study on this? I enjoy them, but have limited myself due to the potential long term health issues they seem to provide.

Also, for folks who do not brew using the traditional method, this excerpt from the article may be reassuring: “For hot mate made from brand 1 leaves, for example, only 6% of total PAHs (182 of 2,906 ng) was released into the first infusion, but 37% (1,092 of 2,906 ng) was released in the 12 infusions.”

The way I drank it when I lived in Paraguay was warm, not hot— I think this makes a difference? I don’t think it’s bad if you don’t drink a ton of it every day either. Not gonna keep me away from my yerba mate, haha.

I have been drinking 1-3 cups of yerba maté daily for almost 20 years now. I know many, many health conscious people that drink it as well. The studies that have been done on yerba maté are very minimal, and somewhat limited to people that are consuming very high amounts at boiling temperatures. Also, most of the studies are done with people that smoke tobacco. I drink fresh green maté that is dried with a smoke-free drying process, I believe that may have something to do with it as well!